Doctor of Agricultural Sciences Veaceslav Afanasiev, who held the post of Deputy Minister of Economy in 2002-2005, said that Gheorghe Duca, who applied for the presidency of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, plagiarized his speech. Afanasiev discovered the speech in a book written by the academician, entitled “Contributions to knowledge-based society”.
In a news conference at IPN, Veaceslav Afanasiev said that in 2004, when he was deputy minister, he was asked to represent the Ministry of Economy at a conference at the Academy of Sciences. Gheorghe Duca’s book appeared in 2005, but Veaceslav Afanasiev discovered the text only recently. “I decided to look for information about the financing that is so often sought by Gheorghe Duca. When reading his book, I found the text that I edited word by word. Though Gheorghe Duca’s discourse in the synthesis book on the conference of 2004 is different, in the book he wrote he appropriated my speech,” stated Veaceslav Afanasiev.
The former deputy minster notified the State Agency on Intellectual Property and was informed that the Moldovan legislation bans the publication of an article or work without the author’s consent. “He didn’t ask for my consent and made no reference to the author of this speech,” said Veaceslav Afanasiev, who intends to sue Gheorghe Duca. “Plagiarism is a crime. In Germany, the minister of education was dismissed after it was found out that he committed plagiarism 30 years ago. I wonder what example this academician gives.”
According to him, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova didn’t progress while it was headed by Gheorghe Duca. Even if the financing for science and research increased four times in the last 10 years, the number of researchers fell two times. The Doctor of Agricultural Sciences called on the Assembly of the Academy of Sciences not to reelect Gheorghe Duca as the Academy’s president on April 17.
In the news conference, Veaceslav Afanasiev presented a video recording where Gheorghe Duca denies having committed plagiarism. Afanasiev says the academician lies.
